Victoria Toensing, attorney for Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks, says Hicks is a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries, and President Obama twice for President. Toensing also said that NBC News "spiked" the story this week, prior to Hicks' dramatic testimony before Congress. Toensing appeared on WMAL-FM in Washington DC Saturday with host Steve Malzberg. "He voted for Hillary in the primary and Obama twice. NBC spiked the story where I told it before the hearings......It’s just amazing what the press is still trying to do to cover this up. So they try to make this partisan...

"They're making up for all the mistakes they made with excuse." In this space over the last two days, we have focused on the three part series by Fox News still looking for the truth and answers to the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith, and former SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Below is the Part III report by Adam Housley in which the military Special Operator with intimate knowledge of the Benghazi attack charges that the Obama Administration "had no plan"...

<p>The Benghazi bureaucracy moved today. In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the State Department said it has issued instructions on how lawyers representing Benghazi whistleblowers may seek clearances to handle classified information. The letter instructs such lawyers to direct their requests to the “Assistant Legal Adviser for Employment Law within the Office of the Legal Adviser.”</p>

On Wednesday, the FBI released photos of three men present at the deadly jihadist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya; the bureau has asked the Libyans’ help in identifying them. Which nicely highlights the fact that it’s been more than seven months since Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans were killed — and yet there’s been no justice, nor even vengeance, in the matter. Nor much exposure: We know little more today than we did in the immediate aftermath of the fiasco. Indeed, the State Department’s Inspector General is now investigating the Accountability Review Board that...

See note Victoria sent me: Greta, I really do not appreciate a headline saying I was accused of lying. Here is my response for you to add to your piece: I said Ventrell was “incompetent or lying’” because he said on 4/30 he knew of no “attorney” requests when he knew very well that Issa had written two letters asking for a process to clear lawyers and DOS had not responded. He purposefully mischaracterized it as an “attorney” request so he could shoot it down. I have never said I requested my clearance; I always said the Department had not...

The State Department is blocking local lawyer Victoria Toensing from representing whistleblowers on the 2012 Benghazi attacks, according to her legal partner and husband Joe DiGenova. Teonsing wants to represent such whistleblowers at the upcoming Congressional hearings about the Benghazi case. "The Department of State is refusing to grant clearances to Victoria and other people who want to represent the whistleblowers in an attempt to prevent the testimony," DiGenova said.

Attorney Victoria Toensing represents a whilstleblower from the State Department who is intent on telling the truth about the attacks on the US Consolate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. Yesterday she went public with the news that the State Department is refusing to grant her security clearance so that she can properly represent her client as the House Oversight committee prepares for investigative hearings on the attacks. State Dept. spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters he was unaware of any issues regarding security clearances for attorneys and added that he had no knowledge of any whistleblowers either.

At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers, or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned. Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate intelligence committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistleblowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

The Report has not made it to Text////as yet.Assets were available to respone much sooner than we were told.Tonight first part of 3 part seriew.Whistle blowers are under duress from the Administration....acquiring lawyers.

For months now, Republican lawmakers have been wondering about the status of the survivors of last September’s terrorist attack in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, and why it is that Congress has not been afforded more access to them. In March, Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested that the Obama administration was engaged in specifically blocking access to these witnesses, and that the witnesses had even been told to “keep quiet” — a notion that the administration blithely dismissed and Democrats once more pooh-poohed as the mere partisan pish-tosh of those petty Republicans. The latest update from Fox...

WMAL interviewed former US Attorney Joe DiGenova this morning and he revealed that the State Department is actively blocking lawyers from representing the Benghazi whistleblowers by denying them access to classified information, something they must have at a minimum to be able to discuss the case with their clients. He specifically cited Victoria Toensing as one of the lawyers being denied access to classified information, despite the fact that she has top-secret clearance.

Last January, several Republican legal stars wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting Eric Holder's nomination to be attorney general. Now, in light of Holder's decision to grant 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed full American constitutional rights and try him in federal court in New York, some of those veteran lawyers are having second thoughts. The January letter called Holder an "extraordinary lawyer" of "unfailing integrity" who is "superbly qualified" to lead the Justice Department and whose appointment as the first African-American attorney general "should be hailed as a milestone." "From his experience Eric fully understands and appreciates...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 What About the Next Time? [Victoria Toensing] “All volunteers step forward. We have a person in custody who is high-ranking al-Qaeda. He taunts that an attack on United States soil is imminent but laughs mockingly when we ask for specifics. We need interrogators.” Such was the threat in the summer of 2002 when the CIA asked the Justice Department for guidance on what its personnel could do to get such information from captured al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubdayah. Since then, the lawyers who stepped forward to provide carefully structured counsel have been criminally investigated...

Gigot: You said that--recently, you wrote for The Wall Street Journal--that although you are a Republican, you take no pleasure in seeing a prosecutor break--violate his ethical obligations in prosecuting a Democrat. How did Patrick Fitzgerald violate ethical standards? Toensing: There's a very strict rule for prosecutors, Paul, and that is, you are not supposed to say anything that would heighten public condemnation of the defendant. In other words, you're not supposed to try to taint the jury pool. We, people in criminal law, call it, you're not supposed to talk outside the four corners of the complaint or the...

Since its opening in 1957, the Islamic Center of Washington has been the city’s most prominent mosque—a center of worship for thousands of area Muslims, including many members of the capital’s diplomatic corps. President Bush even made a speech at the mosque earlier this summer. But now the Islamic Center has become immersed in a nasty court battle marked by charges of embezzlement, abuse of women and an alleged attempt to spread radical messages of hate. The fireworks began earlier this year when federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against the recently ousted business manager of the mosque, Farzad Darui....

http://www.firedoglake.com/ Victoria’s Secret By emptywheel @ 6:58 am The jury is starting another day of deliberations. No word yet on a verdict — you'll know as soon as we know. And in the meantime… Also, yesterday afternoon (3:45) the jury asked for another post-it flip chart pad. We would like another big Post-it pad. The large one for the easel. Someone has been in too many business brainstorming sessions, I think. Jokes in the media room about "The Libby Trial, brought to you by Post-It." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And a prosecutor takes a shot at Victoria Toensing for her WaPo article. ``````````````...

"Or maybe the case has no merit." So suggests the latest issue of the American Lawyer, citing one theory as to why Valerie Plame of CIA-leak fame suddenly parted ways with her attorney, Proskauer Rose partner Christopher Wolf -- her next-door neighbor, no less -- shortly after her civil action was filed against senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and White House aide Karl Rove. "The breakup was a shock," writes the magazine's Elizabeth Goldberg, given that Mr. Wolf had filed the suit only "a month earlier." Headlined "File and run," the article quotes lawyer Victoria Toensing,...

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame is Paula Jones -- if with national security credentials and Beltway savoir-faire. Both women filed iffy lawsuits that seemed more designed to discredit a president than to prevail in a court of law. Jones never could prove that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton hurt her career as a state worker after he allegedly sexually harassed her. Hence, there were no economic damages, as Judge Susan Webber Wright noted when she ruled against Jones. The suit filed last week by Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, against Bush biggies -- Veep Dick Cheney, Cheney's former...

No, there's not a recent deluge of leaks of classified information. The numbers are consistent with those in the past couple of decades. What is different today is that the kid gloves are off regarding the government's treatment of reporters. Thanks to the clamoring by editorial pages of many major newspapers -- which resulted in Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald investigating the publishing of CIA employee Valerie Plame's name -- case law makes it clear that journalists can be hauled before the grand jury and forced to cough up their sources, or face Miller time in jail. Editorial writers professed to...

Victoria Toensing: FISA Fears Shielded 9/11 Plotters Contrary to the claims of Bush administration critics, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has seriously hampered U.S. counterterrorism efforts - and actually helped to shield at least two key 9/11 plotters from detection by U.S. law enforcement. The stunning analysis comes from former Reagan-era Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, who explains on OpinionJournal.com: "I have extensive experience with the consequences of government bungling due to overstrict interpretations of FISA." As deputy assistant attorney general one of Toensing's chief responsibilities was the terrorism portfolio, which included working with FISA. She recalled having to...

In a speech last week, Al Gore took another swing at the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program, which monitors international communications when one party is affiliated with terrorists. Specifically, Mr. Gore argued that George Bush "has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently," and that such actions might constitute an impeachable offense. The question he raises is whether the president illegally bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But the real issue is national security: FISA is as adept at detecting--and, thus, preventing--a terrorist attack as a horse-and-buggy is at getting us from New York to Paris. I have...

In a speech last week, Al Gore took another swing at the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program, which monitors international communications when one party is affiliated with terrorists. Specifically, Mr. Gore argued that George Bush "has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently," and that such actions might constitute an impeachable offense. The question he raises is whether the president illegally bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But the real issue is national security: FISA is as adept at detecting--and, thus, preventing--a terrorist attack as a horse-and-buggy is at getting us from New York to Paris. I have...

In a speech this week, former vice president Al Gore took another swing at the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program, which monitors international communications when one party is affiliated with terrorists...But the real issue is national security: FISA is as adept at detecting -- and, thus, preventing -- a terrorist attack as a horse-and-buggy is at getting us from New York to Paris.

In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats last week demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct that led inexorably to Ms. Plame's unveiling. When the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was being negotiated,...

An "outing" was the result of either incompetence or an effort to undermine the White House. In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats last week demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct...

In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct that led inexorably to Ms. Plame's unveiling.

<p>In a surprise, closed-door debate, Senate Democrats demanded an investigation of pre-Iraq War intelligence. Here's an issue for them: Assess the validity of the claim that Valerie Plame's status was "covert," or even properly classified, given the wretched tradecraft by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the entire episode. It was, after all, the CIA that requested the "leak" investigation, alleging that one of its agents had been outed in Bob Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Yet it was the CIA's bizarre conduct that led inexorably to Ms. Plame's unveiling.</p>

The former deputy assistant attorney general who helped draft the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act blasted Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald on Wednesday, saying he may be getting "creative with law" in order to justify questionable indictments. "If you don't have a clear violation, you should not become what's called 'creative with the law,'" Toensing told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity, after noting that the statute she co-authored was never intended to apply to cases like Leakgate. Toensing said she based her concern on a February report in the Chicago Tribune, which noted, "Probably Fitzgerald's greatest talent was finding creative ways...

The old Washington refrain that "the coverup is worse than the crime" is in the air again. The reason: Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald faces a high legal bar in proving that the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA officer violated federal intelligence laws. Instead, he's more likely to try to show that there was a coverup, or an attempt to obstruct his investigation, according to legal experts. The notion that the underlying offense is not what nails you in Washington has had a long shelf life. It can also be useful in attempting to change the subject...

There now appears to be consensus that no one violated the 1982 Agent Identities Protection Act in publishing the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame. It’s a hard law to violate. Its high threshold requires that the person whose identity is revealed must actually be covert (which requires at the least a foreign assignment within five years of the revelation), that the government must be taking “affirmative measures” to conceal the person’s identity, and that the revealer must know that the government is taking those measures. So why didn’t Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the “leak,” close up shop...

Today's focus remains on Judy Miller and whether she will step forward and fully explain what she knows about the unfolding grand jury investigation, and help answer the dozens of questions that surround it, as well as the New York Times' involvement. Independent counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has given Miller the okay to talk and write about the episode. But does she want the facts out? Time magazine's Matt Cooper did. As soon as he was permitted, Cooper wrote a revealing first-person account of his role in the investigation. And note that in the recent issue of Nieman Reports, a quarterly...

Democrat leaders and editorialists accusing Karl Rove of treason for referring to CIA agent Valerie Plame in an off-the-record interview are ignorant of the law, according to the Washington attorney who spearheaded the legislation at the center of the controversy. Vanity Fair photo - (do they look angry about her "outing?") Plame's circumstances don't meet several of the criteria spelled out in a 1982 statute designed not only to protect the identity of intelligence agents but to maintain the media's ability to hold government accountable, Victoria Toensing told WorldNetDaily. Toensing – who drafted the legislation in her role as chief...

Back in October of 2003, I offered a $100 RuthsChris Steakhouse gift certificate to the first journalist who would tell the public whether Val Plame was or was not a "Covert Agent" according to the law in question. YO' MEDIA, FREE MEAL OFFER: Is Joe Wilson's Wife a "Covert Agent" Under That Law? abner and jimfree added $100 each, bringing the bounty to $300. It went up 10/5/03 and after almost EIGHT months, I recided the offer on 5/31/04 due to lack of response, even though we had faxed the offer to numerous Washington newsrooms and bureaus. By that...

The former prosecutor who helped draft the law that Democrats say was violated when someone in the Bush administration leaked a CIA worker's name to columnist Robert Novak now says that no laws were broken in the case. Writing with First Amendment lawyer Bruce Sanford in the Washington Post recently, former Assistant Deputy Attorney General Victoria Toensing explained that she helped draft the law in question, the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. Says Toensing, "The Novak column and the surrounding facts do not support evidence of criminal conduct." For Plame's outing to have been illegal, the one-time deputy AG says,...